Chronicles of an Amnesiac | √

7, Day Eight

My heart is beating in my mouth, I swear. I can feel each diastole and systole as I keep on running. I am sure that if I pause to catch my breath it would fall out of my mouth, so I keep running. I can't see an inch in front of me, everywhere is smeared with the ink of the night, but I keep on running. I have a faint idea of being chased by a red light but I can't be too sure, the last thing I vividly remember is running; which I'm still in.

Very soon I feel I can't go on anymore and pause to catch my breath, risking harming my heart, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Whoever is chasing me now is welcome to come, I'm not running again.

After recovering my breath I notice an obvious fact that hadn't clicked to my brain earlier: Everywhere is dead quiet in a spooky kind of way and I'm a little scared. No! I won't be scared! I must keep on running and never get caught. I'm very strong!

I keep on running again. The ground is now trembling beneath my feet and I find it hard to maintain balance. Someone is disturbing the ground. The trembles increase in size and frequency. I slip unto my butt and a particular tremble pushes me down the incline of the path and I land in something wet and cold.

Suddenly, I find that I can't move any part of my body stuck in the liquid my body from the waist down, my left elbow, and the whole of my right hand. It is a very awkward position. As I make efforts to twist it seems like the liquid is tightening around me. I hear distant rumbles of the ground still quivering. Bits of the ground start to fall into the liquid and, surprisingly, swim away. I get more frustrated as I think of my imminent death.

Just then I see a red light on top. The red light has weapons sticking out of him. It's so bright that I can see a few inches in front of me. I see lumps of dark organisms, with dots of red in their center, floating around. I start to writhe with all my might, I didn't want to be had by the organisms, or the red arsenal up the incline. I notice with relief that the liquid starts shake around me too. Just then I hear faint choruses coming from all around. The organisms! I just knew they were the ones! I start to writhe some more and just then one touches me with it's colder-than-the-liquid, slimy body.

I start to scream.

'Tiana! Oh my God! Tatiana!' The persistent shaking and the piercing voice woke me up.

I opened my eyes with a start, instantly glad the bad dream was over. I noticed I was sweating and quaking to my very marrow.

'Thank God!' Marilla shouted. 'I was scared, you had a terrible nightmare — daymare.'

I stopped shaking and breathed deeply in and out. 'Why do you thank God? What is God?' were the first things to come out of my mouth.

'That's not what is important right now, I don't even believe he, or she, exists,' Marilla said, all while staring intensely at me.

I felt uncomfortable under such fierce scrutiny. Earlier in the day, when all the strangers had gone, they all turned to me and asked how I'd been so good with knives. The truth is, I don't know, too, maybe it was adrenaline working. So I sat up on the sitting place and swung my legs over the edge so that my toes almost touched the ground.

'What was your dream about?' Marilla asked almost fearfully, as if she was afraid for me.

I didn't want to relive the dream but I closed my eyes and told her. All the while she looked very confused till I thought she was sick.

She fumbled for her rectangle-with-the-eaten-apple. 'I have to call Mom.'

'Don't, actually. I'm okay. Are you going to call with the rectangle-with-the-eaten-apple?'

'Wha . . .?' Her eyes widened and then she looked at the object closely, smiling and turned it to the back, smiling more. She made that tinkling sound of hers again. 'You're soo funny.'

Maybe now is the right time to ask her to teach me how to make such beautiful,  warm sound.

'Yes.' She answered my question. 'It's called a phone, iPhone.'

I shrugged, not sure I totally understood her. 'Where's everybody?'

'Come on, stand up. Mom and Howard are gone to discharge Dad from the hospital.' She started to leave and motioned for me to follow.

I slid on my shoes and went after her. Today had been a rather long night and day with a visit from a lot of strangers: these uniformed people who carried Dad away on a mobile sleeping place (boy, did they make a lot of ruckus), another set came for the man Mom knocked out, a place called the police department, forensic, and others I can't remember. I didn't understand all that went on that day, Mom spoke in hushed tones to them lot and then when they started talking to us separately, Mom told them I was also sick. I figured she just didn't want them to bother me. She even had Howard clean the knives and then hold them to eliminate my finger prints.

'What'd you like to eat?' Marilla asked when we reached the eating island.

'I'm not hungry,' I called after her, for she was already going towards the place called kitchen.

I sat down on a sitting place and picked up the paperback on the island. It was written in a language that wasn't English but I read it anyway. It turned out to be boring. I skipped through leaves and was thinking about dropping it when Marilla arrived, an eating utensil in her hands.

'You can read that?' she was shocked.

'Yes,' I said, amused by her expression.

'As in, understand what is there?'

'Yes,' I replied again.

She dropped what she was holding and stared at me incredulously. 'What language is that?'

'Hellenicus?' It read from the cover.

'Wow, you can actually read Greek.'

I frowned, trying to remember why.

'No, no,' she said. 'You took Greek classes in middle school but then your interest in it dropped, so I was surprised you actually remembered. Considering your amnesia.'

I shrugged, a little glad inside that I remembered at least something in my past.

Later that day Mom and Howard arrived with Dad. He had a white material bound over his enarthrosis and looked slightly off colour.

Mom told me the-man-with-glass-eyes was coming to check on me later, so I excused myself and went up to my box to watch movies on my notebook-with-the-eaten-apple.